All All. Sign In. List activity. LL Cool J. Todd, as he was called, did not have a very happy childhood. At the age of four, he saw his mother and grandfather shot by his own father. After they recovered from their injuries, his mother began to date a young physical therapist she met while in the hospital. The therapist treated Ondrea kindly, but for years he abused Todd physically and verbally, which resulted in Todd becoming a bully himself. It was during this period that he started wearing hats all the time one of L.
Cool J's trademarks is the fact that people never see him without a hat on--until recently. Fortunately, Ondrea finally discovered what this man was doing to her son and left him. As he grew older, Todd found a way to escape the effects of his abuse and his bullying attitude: hip-hop music. He fell in love with it at the age of nine, and by 11 he was writing lyrics and making his own songs with some DJ equipment his grandfather gave him.
At 15, he and one of his best friends came up with his present stage name, L. Rick really liked L. Together, they made the single "I Need a Beat" and sent it to an artist manager named Russell Simmons. Even today, L. He first appeared in Krush Groove , which is a semi-biographical account of the early days of Def Jam Recordings.
In , L. After that, L. His career took off, and after every one of his albums hit platinum-selling status, he was and still is regarded as one of the greatest hip-hop artists of all time. After a few years, he had small roles in a few other films, but was still better known for his music.
All this changed in By this time he was a happily married year-old with three children. His first starring film, Out-of-Sync , had also been released. It didn't do very well at the box office, but it got him noticed by executives at NBC-TV, who wanted to give him a part in a sitcom they were going to air.
